Irish Red Ale - Mini Mash Beer Brewing Kit (5 Gallons)

This has been a big hit and placed third in a local competition. It was brewed with Gigayeast British ale yeast and has a great balance of flavors and a nice caramel head.

This is a very good, truly great beer. Enjoying it today,
St. Patrick's day, and very easy to brew.

I brewed this beer back in late March and bottled in in Early April. While I typically drink more hop forward pale ales and such (and therefore typically brew the same), I like a little variety in my life and not all of my friends and family are hop heads. This was also an economical way for me to get into a mini-mash beer with alot of recipe calcs already done (I'm working up to moving from extract to all grain). As noted, this was my first mini-mash. Rather than using a grain bag, I did my mash in my kettle with a bazooka screen. I wrestled with mash temp just a bit but kept it in the range. My starting gravity hit the low end of the specs listed in the recipe (1.047). I I used Wyeast 1968 (London ESB) as I used this beer to grow yeast for a subsequent bigger beer. Since I used British yeast to make an Irish beer I've dubbed my version Lost Leprechaun Ale. It is now June and I'm running low on it but it's aged very gracefully and with the flocculant nature of the 1968 it is probably the most beautiful beer I've brewed to date. It is a beautiful color and quite clear. The 1968 took it down to 1.012, so it is easy to drink while maintaining a nice malty mouthfeel. I will probably do it again but I may just tweak around a bit with the caramel malts just a bit to enhance those characteristics just a bit (I sort of have in mind another beer than my local brew pub discontinued, much to my chagrin).

If you want a very nice, malt forward, easy drinkin' brew, this one will work wonderfully. CHEERS!